Personal emergency response systems are known in which a subscriber can signal an emergency condition by depressing a control button to cause automatic dialing and signaling of a response center which will act to summon help to the subscriber. Such systems often have a speaker-phone at the subscriber station so that communication with the subscriber can be attempted or carried out after an emergency call has been made and the call established. The use of such speaker-phone communication during an emergency call can be seriously impaired if a television, radio or other audio device is operating in the same room as the speaker-phone or in the same facility at a volume sufficient to interfere with the conversation attempted via the speaker-phone. The problem is exacerbated if the subscriber is an aged or other individual having impaired hearing ability.
It would, therefore, be desirable to provide speaker-phone operation in a personal emergency response system, as well as in other similar contexts, where the presence of operating television sets, radios and the like would not interfere with telephone use.